During these last twenty years, the emergence of MEMS (“MicroElectroMechanical Systems”) technologies has made it possible to integrate sensors within complex systems of small size. In fact it is now possible to envisage the monolithic integration of heterogeneous systems using standard CMOS technologies, comprising the sensitive part of the sensor and also the processing electronics thereof. The integration of the processing electronics as close as possible to the sensitive element thus allows an appreciable reduction in the manufacturing costs, while improving the performance of the sensors, in particular by way of appropriate processing of the noise.
Some of these sensors can thus be found in devices such as mobile telephones, GPSs, laptop computers, etc.
However, one major constraint when using sensors in these applications, which are generally battery-operated, is linked to the power consumption thereof. Due to this constraint, most of the sensors developed nowadays are based on capacitive transduction modes, thus limiting the power consumption but at the same time making the design of the sensitive element much more complex. This design complexity of the sensitive element is thus reflected in the final price of the product.